Art of Supply

"When the government starts collecting money as a tax, they don't normally give it back." — Curtis Spencer, CEO, IMS Worldwide
For most of the last sixty years, the average U.S. tariff rate was two and a half percent. Duty was a rounding error, and import networks got designed accordingly. 
Curtis Spencer, CEO of IMS Worldwide, says the floor is now 20 percent, and plenty of importers are still treating that like weather that will pass.
He has spent more than four decades in foreign-trade zones. When he started, the United States had twelve of them. Customs is about to issue number 302.
In this episode of Art of Supply, Kelly Barner and Curtis Spencer discuss:
- Why the business case for an FTZ went from 2- or 3-to-1 to 10-to-1 without the paperwork getting any harder
-  What "substantial transformation" means now that customs is chasing country of origin into second- and third-tier suppliers
-  The 1 percent of cases where a bonded warehouse beats a zone, and how to tell whether you are in it
Links:
Curtis Spencer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/curtis-spencer-0a553010/ 
Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/ 
Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193 
Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com 
Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe

"C.H. Robinson does not employ drivers." - C.H. Robinson Chief Legal Officer Dorothy Capers
This May, two courts drew a new line for freight brokerage liability. The U.S. Supreme Court stripped brokers of a federal defense they had leaned on for years. The Texas Supreme Court turned around and told Home Depot it wasn't liable for a fatal crash involving a carrier hauling its freight.
Two companies, both a step removed from the truck. Opposite outcomes. The difference came down to control.
And then, in July, a separate jury found that C.H. Robinson might be responsible for the actions of a driver that did not work for them, but a carrier they hired.
In this episode of Art of Supply, Kelly Barner covers:
- Why a jury decided the driver was C.H. Robinson's "borrowed employee," and how that turned 23% of the blame into 68% of the bill
- What protected Home Depot, and how fast that protection disappears
-  Why the industry's response could pull carriers out of the market you buy from, concentrating volume and raising prices
Links:
Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/ 
Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193 
Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com 
Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe

"You know, Robert, I have no expectation to ever be happy at work. I just hope to be a little less miserable." 
That's the line from a restaurant server that Robert Martichenko, board chair of TrailPath Workplace Solutions and founder of the lean consultancy LeanCore, can't shake. 
Operational supply chain roles aren't easy, but that doesn't mean it isn't possible for people to find dignity in their work. Hoping to be less miserable one day at a time does little for individual frontline workers, and it does even less for the company that employs them and the customers they serve.
In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Robert and Kelly Barner dig into what dignity means in the workplace, and why it is not the same thing as respect:
- Why "respect for people" is the wrong frame, and what dignity actually requires
- The four states TrailPath's research finds people in at work — and why nearly half of most workforces are declining or surviving, not growing or thriving
- What the second law of thermodynamics has to do with your supply chain, and why chasing unit cost quietly cost procurement its relationships
 
Links:
Robert Martichenko on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertmartichenko/ 
Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/ 
Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193 
Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com 
Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe

In December of 2025, a $285,000 Windrose Technology electric semi-truck went missing. It still has not been found. 
Reportedly, two mechanics who kept it running, Travis Waite and Harold Keller, left Windrose Technology owed a combined $91,000 in back wages, and (according to the company) are holding the truck until they are paid.
That's not the strangest thing about Windrose Technology. It's just the most dramatic.
Windrose is a Chinese-founded, Belgium-headquartered electric truck startup. It was founded in 2022 by Wen Han, a 36-year-old Stanford MBA and all-around colorful character. 
By most independent accounts, the truck itself is good, but that does little to explain the public disputes with former employees. 
Is this a well-engineered truck buried under a chaotic company with an eccentric founder or a company whose chaos is a preview of what may happen when production has to scale?
In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner covers:
- Why a $285,000 electric truck is currently sitting somewhere nobody at Windrose can find, and why the two guys who allegedly know where it is aren't telling
- How a truck built in China ended up with a VIN that says it was made in Georgia, and what that suggests about trucking safety compliance's dependence on the honor system
- Why Nikola's pardoned, convicted founder made a lowball offer for the company, and why that story gets a lot more complicated once you see the actual trucks Windrose has on the road in Texas and Chile
 
Links:
Troubling Times for Electric Trucking: https://artofprocurement.com/blog/supply-troubling-times-for-electric-trucking 
Why is nobody talking about China's new supply chain regulations?: https://artofprocurement.com/blog/supply-why-is-nobody-talking-about-chinas-new-supply-chain-regulations 
Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/ 
Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193 
Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com 
Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe

"FedEx is not simply selling an asset, it is trading a warehousing unit for a deeper transportation relationship with one of the world's largest container lines, which is a smarter reallocation than a straight divestiture." — Bruno Digital
FedEx just sold its Supply Chain unit to CMA CGM for $1.4 billion. It sold for the same price FedEx paid for the same business, under a different name, back in 2015. 
But FedEx didn't just sell an operating unit. They also entered into a larger agreement for ocean and air cargo that highlights some interesting trends in global logistics.
In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner covers:
- What the $1.4 Billion deal includes, and the multi-year ocean and air cargo agreements worth an estimated $3.5 Billion that are riding along with it
- Why U.S. law would make it impossible for CMA CGM to ever buy FedEx outright
- Whether CMA CGM's growing air cargo fleet is competition for FedEx, or something else entirely
 
Links:
Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/
Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193 
Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com 
Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe